Jing Li, MD, DrPH, MS

Jing Li, MD, DrPH, MS

Associate Professor of Medicine

Jing Li, MD, DrPH, MS, was an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Co-Director of the Center for Health Services Research at the University of Kentucky where she had worked since January 2014. A graduate of Tianjin Medical University in 1997, she completed residency training in anesthesiology at the Tianjin Medical University General Hospital and clinical research training obtaining a Master’s degree in Clinical Research. She then moved to the U.S. in 2000 and completed a Master’s degree in Computer & Information Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 2020, she completed a Doctorate in Public Health with a focus on Health Management and Policy at University of Kentucky.

Dr. Li’s research is motivated by fragmented, inefficient and inconsistent health services delivery that yields suboptimal patient outcomes and quality of life. With experience and expertise in research methodologies, health services delivery, implementation science, teamwork, and program evaluation, she has led multiple projects to implement evidence-based practices, promote preventive care, improve care coordination and patient safety, enhance in-setting and cross-setting teamwork, and improve community health. While at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Li led data management for several multi-center studies including Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA), National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), and the Dental Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN). In 2006, she was recruited to the Alabama Quality Improvement Organization and began working with health care organizations and practices in optimizing care processes and improving patient outcomes. In this role, Dr. Li focused on improving care through quality improvement, advanced analytics, and integration of behavioral interventions and process optimization. Subsequently, she was recruited to Northwestern University in 2011 to serve as Director of Research for the Division of Hospital Medicine and project director for the Preventing Readmissions through Effective Partnerships (PREP) initiative funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois in collaboration with the Illinois Hospital Association. Dr. Li co-developed and implemented three statewide quality improvement programs at 62 hospitals for PREP.

For over a decade, Dr. Li has been studying the impact of multilevel factors on adoption, adaption, and implementation of evidence-based programs. Her research portfolio includes serving as PI on an NHLBI-funded study to implement guideline-based practice in syncope evaluation and management, serving as Co-PI on the CMS-funded Kentucky Consortium for Accountable Health Communities, and leading the Transdisciplinary Implementation Science Alliance at the University of Kentucky. Additionally, she was the Co-Director for the Tracking and Evaluation Core at the Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translational Science and led a Medicare ACO spillover effect analysis funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Previously, she was co-investigator and Director of the Coordinating Center for the PCORI-awarded transitional care (TC) study (Project ACHIEVE) that used a mixed methods approach and linked qualitative context data and quantitative claims and survey data to determine the most effective TC strategies.

From an education perspective, Dr. Li was course director at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health’s Leading Change with Healthcare Teams. She also led the development of University of Kentucky HealthCare’s role-based TrueBlue Process Improvement Capacity Development Program and initiated enterprise wide training in quality improvement. Dr. Li also developed and delivered an implementation science training workshop to over 107 faculty among six health professions colleges in 2017.